Using the term “natural birth” for a vaginal delivery implies that having a c-section is “un-natural.” I prefer using “vaginal birth” instead of “natural birth/delivery.” If you are expecting multiples and need a c-section, then IMO, both types of delivery are natural.

A vaginal delivery is usually decided at the time of birth by Mom’s health and the position of the lower baby, i.e. if that baby is head down. If the second baby is also head down, wonderful and the chances of vaginal delivery are pretty well assured. If the second baby is breech and depending upon the type of breech (i.e. feet down, across the abdomen, etc), the doctor may have the experience to turn or rotate baby to head down for safest delivery. If the second baby is showing signs of distress (e.g. increased or decreased heart rate), it may be decided to have a c-section for delivery of the second baby. This doesn’t happen often, but it does happen from time to time.

The more fetuses Mom is carrying, the more likely they will be delivered by c-section. In 30+ years of working in the field, I have only personally known of one vaginal delivery of triplets.

If you are thinking of travelling with your babies, be sure and find out from each airline you are using if you need an adult PER child. For Air Canada, parents with children under two years of age, parents need to have ONE ADULT PER CHILD FOR EACH FLIGHT TAKEN. If you have twins and a toddler, triplets or quads, you will also need one adult per child. When making your flight arrangements, make sure the booking agent hears you correctly, as in say it several times, “We will be travelling with triplet babies.” As parents we can do the right thing and state our situation, but the receiver is “not of our world” and may only hear “baby.” You want to make sure that you are not turned away at the boarding gate. This happened to one of our local families flying Ottawa to Vancouver for Christmas Holidays and they did not make the flight as they were down one adult.

Multiple births have been in the news quite a bit the past few months and it is difficult to tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing (think the California woman who gave birth to octuplets and Jon and Kate). Having multiples is what we commonly refer to in the business as a “hard happiness.” Of course there are logistic challenges such as carrying them, house is too small, so is the car, emotional and mental issues, but the truth is these children are also a blessing. Double the laughter, double the joy, double the hugs, double the kisses (or triple or quadruple…..) and the family may have other children as well. These are definitely busy households but that doesn’t mean that life is always hectic or unorganized. Sure those days exist but there is less stress on finding playmates for socialization, there are enough players for lots of games, story time can be precious, and bath time memorable. Not to mention the cute and fun things that kiddies say and do to light up your life, e.g. “what part of the pig do the lampchops come from?” Or when helping to fold laundry, my 3-year old held up my bra and said “Here’s your bra-ccoli!” Or when one asked, “How far do the aids go?” Asking for clarifications, she said, “You know, First Aid, Second Aid…..” Comedy writers couldn’t write better lines.

What’s this got to do with multiple-births? Well, sometimes I think society focuses too much on how many and not enough on the treasures children are. Sure we need to take prenatal classes geared towards multiple births, and do some reading and preparation for what we can expect when we need to juggle all those babies, but it is so important not to also remember what joy they bring as well.

So my husband and I just celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary and our twins + older sibling (read 3 under two years) did not cause us to divorce but did exactly the opposite and made sure we worked together and made a team.